Yesterday we had our first faculty meeting. Yes, a faculty meeting on a Saturday! It was 4 hours full of great information, with a little humor thrown in every now and then. It was a great time for Holly and I to meet everyone, and become familiar with the basic rules and procedures. The first 15 minutes Olu (or Rev. Menjay, as people refer to him at school) did a devotion. He read from Luke 13:10-17, when Jesus healed the crippled woman on the sabbath day. He talked about how Jesus did the unusual or the unexpected, because it was unheard of for there to be healing on the sabbath. Olu said that he wanted our goal and dream this year to be to heal on the sabbath. He wants the faculty at Rick's to dream big and set goals to do the unusual or unexpected. It was a very powerful devotional, and one that made me feel even more empowered!
Today we went to church! It was our first Liberian church service, and it was amazing. Holly and I went to New Georgia Baptist Church with the Menjay family. Olu and Otolee have a 2 year old girl named Mia, and a 2 month old boy named Q (Olu's middle name). Their children are beautiful! I held Mia as she slept through the whole service. She is precious! The service started at 10:30 with choir singing as people came in. We arrived at 11:00, and the choir was still singing as the congregation worshiped. The service consisted of singing hymns, clapping, dancing, announcements, offering, scripture reading, a sermon, and an invitation. This may sound familiar to a lot of baptists, but there was something different that I cannot really explain. I saw worship in a whole new way. It was so real and genuine. They said "God is Great!" and "Amen!" so many times, but it was never over said and it never lost meaning. As I held Mia and looked around at the people, I almost started to cry. I want to be more like the people here in so many ways. I saw God today!
On the drive home we stopped at the market and got corn, boiled peanuts, and bananas. Otolee, Mia, Holly and I ate the peanuts in the car, and Olu ate his corn. We sang songs on the radio, laughed, and told stories as we drove. We went and had lunch at the Menjay's home. They also live on the Rick's campus. We had rice with potato greens, and plantains. The potato greens had fish, chicken, and peppers in it. It was very good, and spicy! After lunch we played with Mia, and Olu showed us a video of some exciting events at the school. It was an exciting afternoon with our friends!
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